The Juneau School Board has approved an $86 million budget for next school year. It maintains current class sizes, cuts three instructional teaching coaches and decreases funding for activities.
Superintendent Mark Miller says the district isn’t putting any operating fund money toward high school activities travel, coaches, officials or supplies.
“The only way money is going to get into that pot of money, if you will, is through what the CBJ gives us and what we get from the people who participate in the activities and what we can get from the community and businesses as support,” Miller says.
The budget approved Tuesday night includes a number of placeholders, as the school district waits for the city and state budgets to be adopted.
It assumes the Juneau Assembly will give the maximum local contribution allowed by state law, almost $25 million.
It also assumes the Assembly will contribute $565,000 to high school activities. Another $200,000 will hopefully come from a student activities fee and community fundraising. The district is putting close to $500,000 toward a high school activities director, and elementary and middle school activities.
Director of Administrative Services David Means says another big assumption is state funding. For one thing, the district doesn’t know whether it will get the $1.1 million in one-time state funding that was in last year’s education bill. The approved budget assumes it’ll get half.
“The second thing is, is there’s uncertainty whether they’ll continue to fund the Alaska pre-K pilot program. We use that to support our Head Start classes in our schools here in Juneau,” Means says. “The third program that’s up in the air is their funding for the Construction Trades Academy.”
Means says the pre-K program and trades academy account for roughly $650,000 in the school budget.
If the district doesn’t get any of the $1.1 million in one-time state funding, Superintendent Miller says class sizes in grades three to 12 will get bigger. If there is one-time funding, he says the administration and school board can discuss restoring items like instructional coaches and activities.
The school district will submit the budget to the Assembly on March 31. The Assembly Finance Committee will start looking at it on April 8.
